Wärtsilä Voyage expertise demonstrator vessel Ahti will present that new tech could be fitted in right this moment’s ships
Wärtsilä Voyage right this moment took the SMM event in Hamburg because the event to unveil its new demonstrator and innovation vessel, Ahti. The former German Government fishery patrol vessel was chosen as a goal for retrofit expertise installations to show what’s already technologically attainable for the present fleet, and to create a platform for additional innovation and improvement.
With Ahti, Wärtsilä Voyage has created a seaborne surroundings the place prospects can check Wärtsilä Voyage’s personal applied sciences, in addition to its expertise companions’ options. These trials can be carried out in changeable real-life sea situations that may be troublesome and costly to recreate in a laboratory surroundings.
The creation of a floating R&D facility additionally helps Wärtsilä Voyage to chop down the associated fee and time limitations related to real-life exams, returning significant outcomes on a a lot decrease danger and price foundation than going into full-scale testing straight. Ahti additionally creates a useful resource the place prospects and expertise companions can collaborate.
In the primary half of 2022, Ahti’s bridge was upgraded with plenty of merchandise from Wärtsilä Voyage’s portfolio together with NACOS Platinum, SPECS and RS24. The demonstrator vessel has additionally been fitted with on-the-market associate expertise merchandise from machine vision specialist Oscar Navigation and communications specialist Drynet. Soon, additional tech can be onboard, making Ahti a bridge to the extremely automated, related, situationally conscious and data-enabled future for maritime that Wärtsilä Voyage is aiming to create.
“Technology designed to solve the industry’s biggest challenges must be tested in situations that come as close as possible to real life scenarios,” stated Hendrik Bußhoff, head of product – autonomous techniques, Wärtsilä Voyage, on the demonstrator vessel. “However, we understand that real world testing is costly and time consuming. Trialing new equipment almost always means testing it on a customer ship which can often bring with it a lot of obligations and questions about documentation, schedules, data ownership and compliance. This is why we invested in Ahti. We now have a resource that will shorten time-to-market, enable us to fail fast and innovate quicker, and compare and understand different technologies outside of controlled environments.”
Sean Fernback, president, Wärtsilä Voyage commented: “In the last few years, the maritime industry has recognized the benefits of digitalization, and how it can help organizations tackle the very biggest challenges that the sector faces. Ahti provides a powerful tool for testing the capabilities and benefits of a tech-enabled vessel and provides us with an environment in which we can see the future, today, on our terms.”
